Queensland desperately tries to contain four separate Covid clusters amid fears lockdown for millions will be EXTENDED – as two new Virgin Australia flights, an airport café and hospital eatery are exposed to virus
- Fears lockdown of Townsville and south-east Queensland could be extended
- Battling three outbreaks of highly contagious Delta strain and another cluster
- Virgin flights, hospital cafe and airport newsagent added to exposure site list
- Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk under fire from federal politicians and doctors
Queensland's lockdown could be extended as the state battles to control four concerning coronavirus outbreaks.
Anxious health officials are waiting on the results of thousands of tests as they deliberate whether to extend the current three-day lockdown across southeast Queensland, along with Townsville, Magnetic Island and Palm Island in the state's north beyond 6pm Friday.
The state is battling three outbreaks of the highly contagious Delta strain on top of a fourth cluster of the Alpha variant which spread out of hotel quarantine last month.
A decision about lockdown likely won't be made before Friday morning after a war of words broke out between Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and federal politicians over the vaccine rollout.
She has been slammed by Australia's largest medical bodies for Queenslanders under the age of 60 to avoid the AstraZeneca jab.
More venues were added to the state's growing list of exposure sites overnight including a popular Brisbane hospital cafe, an airport newsagent, tennis courts in the city's north and two more Virgin Australia flights between Sydney and Brisbane.

The three day lockdown on large swathes of Queensland could be extended beyond Friday night. Pictured is a woman getting some sunshine and fresh air in Surfers Paradise
Passengers who were on flight VA924 from Brisbane to Sydney on Saturday June 26 from 8.05am-9.26am or flight VA957 from Sydney to Brisbane that same day from 3.56pm-5.29pm has been ordered to get tested and remain isolated until they test negative.
Anyone who attended the Breeze Café at the main entrance of Brisbane's Prince Charles Hospital Wednesday June 23 from 4.50pm-5.15pm or News@BNE, level 2 Domestic Terminal at Brisbane Airport on Thursday June 24 from 9.20am-10.20am is regarded as a close contact.
They must be tested immediately and isolate for 14 days, regardless of the result.
The same order applies to anyone who attended the Club Coops Tennis Centre, courts 7-11 in Chermside on June 28 between 8am and 10.30am.
Anyone who visited The Bay Health Club, Sandgate on Sunday June 20 from 5pm-11.59pm or Tower One, Unison at Waterfront, Newstead on Friday June 25 from 12.20pm-11.59pm should also get tested but don't have to isolate unless symptoms develop.
The two venues are regarded as low-risk contact sites.

More venues were added to the list of exposure sites on Wednesday night, including News@BNE at Brisbane Airport's domestic terminal (pictured)
An infectious diseases expert believes it would be too early to make a call on lockdown on Thursday.
'We'll start to know if the situation is better or worse than first anticipated in the next two to three days,' Associate Professor Paul Griffin told the Courier Mail.
'We're still only in the infancy of our testing in response to this. It's too early to say too much. I think we need to be prepared for the worse but hope for the best.
'Everyone understands that this is a precarious situation; if we don't do the right thing it's likely to get a lot worse.'
Millions of Queenslanders were plunged into lockdown sparked by an unvaccinated traveller who made repeated trips between Australia and Indonesia.
He was being treated at Brisbane's Prince Charles Hospital Covid-19 ward, where he infected a 19-year-old hospital receptionist working near the ward.
The receptionist from Sandgat now at the centre of one of three Delta clusters was not vaccinated and was active in the community for 10 days while infectious, which included a four day trip north to Townsville and Magnetic Island.
Queensland recorded three new local cases on Wednesday, all of which are linked to existing clusters.
Two of the three recent cases are close contacts of previous cases and have been in isolation, while the third is the brother of the hospital receptionist.
The other outbreaks were sparked by an Ipswich-based NT Granites goldmine worker who caught the virus in Brisbane hotel quarantine while the another involving a Virgin flight crew member.

Anyone who played the Club Coops Tennis Centre courts 7-11 in Chermside in Brisbane's north on June 28 between 8am and 10.30am is ordered to get tested and isolate for 14 days

More more Virgin Australia flights between Brisbane and Sydney last Saturday have been added to the list of exposure sites
'We know that the Delta variant is virtually impossible to control,' Queensland's Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said.
'We're doing our best to manage that within our hotels but they're not designed for that process and we're also doing our best to manage them in our hospitals but it is a very, very dangerous variant.
'I'm going to have to look very carefully what is the next step to make our hotels and our hospitals even safer than what they were.'
Meanwhile, the blame game between state and federal politicians over Queensland's latest Covid crisis has reached fever pitch.
Ms Palaszczuk called for overseas arrivals to be slashed by up to 75 per cent as she doubled down on her criticism of the federal government's management of quarantine and the vaccine rollout, saying it had let Australians down.
'We have had... a magical moment in time we are never going to get back, where we could have had the entire population vaccinated before the virus arrived in this way,' she told ABC's 7.30 on Wednesday night.
'I would like to see a massive reduction. We need to do this now because we need to contain this Delta strain ... 50 per cent, 75 per cent, let's reduce this right down.'

All of Queensland's new three local cases are linked as close contacts of existing cases, as the south-east of the state starts its three-day lockdown (pictured in Brisbane on Wednesday)
She also criticised the prime minister Scott Morrison, saying national cabinet had not discussed whether to offer the AstraZeneca vaccine to people under the age of 40, if they accepted the risk of blood clots.
It comes after the Queensland premier and her deputy Steven Miles called for a drastic reduction in the number of overseas arrivals and slammed the vaccine rollout in a fiery press conference earlier on Wednesday.
Dr Young also reiterated her disapproval in under-40s getting AstraZeneca.
'It is rare, but they are at increased risk of getting the rare clotting syndrome. We've seen up to 49 deaths in the UK from that syndrome,' she told reporters.
'I don't want an 18-year-old in Queensland dying from a clotting illness who, if they got Covid, probably wouldn't die.
'We've had very few deaths due to Covid-19 in Australia in people under the age of 50.
'And wouldn't it be terrible that our first 18-year-old in Queensland who dies related to this pandemic, died because of the vaccine.'

The ill-fated journey of the 19-year-old woman who sparked Queensland's three-day lockdown
Ms Palaszczuk has been slammed by Australia's largest medical bodies which accused her of 'scaremongering' and undermining the revised national Covid vaccination rollout plan.
Charlotte Hespe, director of The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners - one of the country's largest doctors' organisations - accused the Queensland government of using fear tactics.
'She is definitely scaremongering because she is putting it out there and saying 'they can't have their own choice, I'm making a choice for them',' Dr Hespe told 2GB radio.
She said the use of a particular vaccine should be an individual choice and shouldn't be directed by politicians.

A man and his son play on Main Beach at the Gold Coast on Wednesday during south-east Queensland's lockdown
Australian Medical Association president Dr Omar Khorshid also supported Mr Morrison's move, saying he 'didn't have a problem with removing the restrictions on age that the Prime Minister's done'.
In a letter to AMA members, he wrote that the Prime Minister's new position on AstraZeneca was 'reasonable' and would 'satisfy a desire in the community to be vaccinated as soon as possible'.
'The change merely removes the restrictions and allows all adult Australians access to the approved vaccine,' he wrote.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt and Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews also hit back at Ms Palaszczuk as they slammed the Queensland Premier over her criticism of the Federal Government's advice on AstraZeneca.

Queensland is battling four separate Covid outbreaks. Pictured is a traffic worker in Brisbane
In a forceful reply, Gold Coast MP Ms Andrews said Ms Palaszczuk and her deputy Steven Miles were attempting to distract from their failures of state-run hotel quarantine.
'The reason that we are in lockdown here, particularly in south-east Queensland, but also in parts of northern Queensland, are because of failures by the Palaszczuk Government,' she said.
Ms Andrews cited the Covid cases of the mine worker from Bendigo placed in a hotel quarantine room between two international travellers and the unvaccinated receptionist from the Prince Charles Hospital as evidence of her claims.
'Clearly what Annastacia Palaszczuk is doing is making sure ... she puts up a smokescreen to hide the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of quarantine that is administered and managed by the Queensland Government,' she said.
Mr Hunt said medical advice from ATAGI had not changed and continued to be the 'guiding light' for the vaccine rollout, despite the Queensland government's call for under 40s to ignore the federal Government and not take the AstraZeneca vaccine.

South-east Queensland has woken up to its second day of a three day lockdown. Pictured is a deserted Brisbane CBD